The Quest to be Normal
by OhMyMorganFreeman
Summary: A shot oneshot about an OC girl who attends the Quirm College for Young Ladies. I have a revised, much better version of this story available, please go look at that one instead.


Ok this is my first story, so be careful, but overall I think it went pretty well.

**Disclaimer** I Do not own Discworld. It belongs to Pratchett. How I wish, though

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Fifteen year old Adrianna was frustrated.

This was normal. Adrianna had always been one of those extremely angry children, the ones who tore the heads off teddy bears when slightly annoyed. On many occasions her parents had been heard telling their friends something along the lines of 'She's a beautiful little girl, one of life's little angels, you know?' while in the background she chased their son with a large stick.

She was frustrated because The Quest was failing. The Quest to be Normal had taken hold of Adrianna, just as it did to everyone her age, but it had been rather more violent in her case, as most things were. After she realised that she couldn't find out what normal actually _was_, she went as far as she could go in the opposite direction without ending up where she started (after all, sooner or later, everything had to be normal to someone).

She had tried becoming one of what her grandmother called 'those nasty little devil children', but her mousy blond hair had completely put off the look, and besides, she couldn't see through the mascara. She had also tried joining the local Omnian choir, but the sight of her approaching glare had caused many of the younger boy's voices to break prematurely. She had been a nerd, a skater and many other things besides.

She was _failing_. She wasn't _normal_.

"_And is that really a bad thing_?" said one of the rebellious little voices in the back of her head. Adrianna then did something rather strange, which was the mental equivalent of scrunching the voice into a little paper ball and throwing it in the trash. Arguing with others was all well and good, she did it all the time, but arguing with herself was just annoying.

As all frustrated people do at some point, having failed at one endeavour, she decided to try something even more difficult, despite the lack of logic. She was going to be one of the Cool Girls.

All preparations had been made earlier in the morning. She had carefully fiddled with her uniform until she had that sort of half tucked, half un-tucked way of wearing it that practically screamed 'I don't care' or, if done particularly well, 'Bugger off, you old git'. It had also taken all morning to make her hair reasonably presentable, and she had spent the rest of it practising her 'like, what?' in front of the mirror. Adrianna had the kind of mind that saw the world in contrasts, people were stereotypes and anything that didn't fit was calmly ignored or set on fire.

As she walked the Quirm College for young Ladies' almost famous scenic pathway, (set up by Miss Butts in a failed attempt to attract parents) she noticed a flock of black cockatoos, which her grandmother had told her were a bad omen, a sign of failure.

"They carry an ill wind wherever the go, and are harbingers of sorrow and loss" she had said, rocking on her chair in the way only hunched little old ladies can. "And besides, the little buggers keep stealing my walnuts and screeching their lungs out at three in the morning".

This only served to make her angrier, as if the entire universe was conspiring against her, another one of those conclusions her peers also generally arrived at, but without the explosion.

Her glare became even more noticeable when she spotted one of the (other) Cool Girls, whose name she had currently forgotten.

"Hi, er…um…Su-no wait, er… like, what are you doing?" she said in a fake cheery voice accompanied by a smile that, if anything, made her even scarier.

The girl eyed her warily. Like most girls at the College, she had opted to calmly wait out Adrianna's daily personality changes and hope for the best. Preferably from about ten miles away.

"Um, nothing. Sorry, Adrianna, I kind of have to be somewhere else right now", she said in a voice that did not in fact, quaver, and walked off in a way that implied only mild concern, not outright fear. This was rather impressive, from most of the school's point of view.

Adrianna's temper, which didn't need much provocation in the first place, swelled even more at this. Chri-…er…um… had rejected her! Yet another failure! She _wasn't normal_.

She was so_ mad_.

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Afterwards, all her parents had to say was that "oh well, it happens every now and then, teenage hormones, you know?"

All the Watchman in charge could say was "Thank God she didn't have access to dangerous weaponry".

And all that the un-named girl had to say was "It wasn't all that bad, really. For Adrianna, it was practically normal".

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No, the un-named girl is not Susan; I really doubt Susan was ever considered cool. Ever. This _is_ set in the same time Susan is at The College, though, not that it matters.


End file.
